Chapter 1249
The Warrior’s Curse
The sun had only recently risen, it was morning… the most vibrant time of the day.
People dressed, either on their way to prepare for work, already at work, or wandering outside, chatting with others.
From the First Ring to the Second Ring, merchants were enthusiastically calling out, preparing their goods—many of them were mobile, their “shops” actually a pushcart, and some merchants even had a simple bed on their carts.
Men, women, old and young gathered around their carts, waiting for food or drinks to be produced. Around them, further away, or sitting, were slaves dressed in simple, plain clothes, eagerly awaiting something.
And in the Third Ring, the streets suddenly became much cleaner.
Not only were there no more merchants pushing carts, nor slaves sitting on the ground. There were fewer people on the streets, and the shops on both sides of the street appeared more high-class and luxurious.
But in the next moment, an almost visible ripple suddenly swept across from beneath their feet—
Many fragile pottery items in the Second Ring shattered almost simultaneously, people felt a sudden instability under their feet, some fell to the ground, and some carts and signs also collapsed because of it; the First Ring only experienced a sudden violent shake, the water surface rippled intensely, and the baskets holding food and ingredients were overturned.
And the more noble Third Ring, surprisingly, suffered a disaster that was several times greater.
The earth rolled up, as if a cup of milk covered with a thick layer of chocolate powder was lightly shaken, the ground rolled up, revealing deeper sand and gravel. Many shop barriers flickered unstantly, people walking on the street suddenly fell, trees in the city swayed and collapsed, and fragile buildings crumbled.
There was no confusion or crying—those who could come here were all powerful individuals from the outside world, at least Fourth Tier, and many were Fifth Tier powerhouses.
In an instant, various Path Radiance flickered.
Solidified yet shattered barriers, solidified yet broken earth… chanting spells, strangely glowing rituals, and even the roars of dragons.
With everyone’s combined effort, the shaking earth soon returned to calm.
Only when viewed from directly above could the consequences of Haina’s attack be clearly seen—within her attack range was a twisted and battered ruin, messy like a dog had chewed on it. It basically covered the Right Master of Ceremonies’ official residence, but did not spread any further.
“Already… so fast…?!”
It had only been a little over a minute since Haina launched that attack.
She was stunned—in Haina’s perception, the Third Ring, even if it didn’t collapse or shatter from her furious strike, would at least fall into complete chaos. People would cry, fear, flee, and die… she even felt guilty because of it.
This was also why Haina rarely used Path Power.
She vaguely realized her power but dared not bear the consequences of using it. Although she was already a top-tier combatant in the world, she was unwilling to admit it, still hoping to maintain her previous interpersonal relationships.
Like a very fat cat stubbornly wanting to squeeze into a cardboard box from its kittenhood.
While Haina was wary of and fearful of her own power, she also possessed intense pride and a slight arrogance—
She actually knew how much destruction she could cause, and she knew how many people she had surpassed. Because of this, her gentleness and humility hid a subtle arrogance. It was a sense of self-satisfaction and security that “although I am polite to you, I can destroy you at any time.”
But now…
She had truly used this power, but it did not yield the result she had imagined.
This partly relieved her and made her feel much more at ease… but from another perspective, Haina also felt a vague sense of emptiness, of loss, and even a bit of the caution, or rather, timidity unique to Path Adaptation: “Lily, let’s go quickly. They’ll discover the problem here soon.”
“Go? We should go, Young Master is waiting for you—you’ve been gone for too long, did you run into trouble?”
Lily simply said calmly, “But there’s no need to rush. We can also observe their reactions first.”
“Because…”
Haina shrunk her neck, feeling a little guilty.
—She had actually found the Right Master of Ceremonies’ position long ago, but he was sleeping.
If she had directly targeted him for death, this process might not even take two hours. A glass-armored Ritualist, when not on guard, could be approached within three seconds by a warrior of the same Energy Level—even a warrior who had obtained the Golden Path Trait bestowed by a Pillar God—and would be practically indistinguishable from death.
However, this was Haina’s first revenge… she wanted it to be more ceremonial. Or perhaps due to the confidence and arrogance of just obtaining great power, she wanted to confront the other party face-to-face, and then deliver righteous judgment, rather than using sneak attacks or assassination methods.
Therefore, Haina patiently waited until the other party woke up.
She even replayed the other party’s every action in the Ascension Ritual in her mind—how he approached and deceived her with a kind and trustworthy smile, and how she had brought him into her carefully managed shelter as a teammate.
Haina and the refugees she had painstakingly gathered had, over a long period of time, built trust and forged friendships.
But when she smilingly introduced this hard-won “teammate” to those refugees and children, perhaps in her subconscious, she also thought of these Ascenders from the same world as being in a “more equal” relationship.
From that time on, people began to go missing in the shelter. It wasn’t until the tenth person that Haina finally discovered it.
The Cake Maker didn’t simply kill them. He also patiently tortured them, causing extreme emotional fluctuations, so that these commoners could be most efficiently transformed into ritual materials… He even flayed one person alive in front of Haina with a spell, and this person was the first one Haina had rescued.
It was the stimulus at that time that made Haina truly realize—she had stepped out of school and entered this cruel Extraordinary society.
In a sense, the Cake Maker was Haina’s true mentor. She was protected by her mentors in school due to her excellent grades. During her internship, she met Eivass and Sherlock and obtained their friendship, these “future big figures,” which made her life smooth sailing… In reality, she had never truly entered the workplace, nor had she ever faced Extraordinary criminals who were stronger and more cunning than herself, and she had never even killed anyone.
It was from that moment that Haina began to shed her naivety.
—Perhaps more than judging the other party’s sins, what she wanted was to judge her own foolish and naive self. Haina sometimes thought this way.
Because she truly couldn’t refute every word of the Cake Maker—she was indeed foolish, trusting others in the Ascension Ritual; it took her so long to feel that something was wrong, if she were outside, she would have died long ago.
Because of this, Haina replayed many lines in her mind at the time.
Just like the passionate lines in knight novels, righteously refuting the other party’s hypocritical and false words, leaving them speechless and delivering righteous judgment.
… But when Haina killed his guards and they actually started arguing, she realized a problem.
She couldn’t win the argument.
She couldn’t even righteously refute every word the Cake Maker said—the Ascension Ritual was indeed a sham, and Transcenders should indeed seize every opportunity to become stronger. Just as an audience shouldn’t consider the villain in a stage play to be evil… even though the Cake Maker was indeed a very, very bad person, the motive for her causing trouble for him seemed to be somewhat flawed.
In the end, she smashed him into a pulp with a shield, completing her revenge with great ease—she had even entered Holy Spring City for this revenge, and was about to face a Heavenly Envoy.
This emptiness, this sense of void… made Haina feel that her “hatred” was somewhat ridiculous. It was as if she had really sought revenge in reality because of a petty grudge over killing in a virtual game.
Was she wrong?
But she clearly felt something was wrong… she clearly thought the other party was wrong, but she just couldn’t refute his sophistry.
Haina only felt her brain turn into a paste.
—I don’t know if it’s a curse from the Supreme Heaven, but she felt that the more she moved forward on the warrior’s professional path, the more foolish her once intelligent brain became. Answers that she could come up with instantly before, now her brain turned slower and slower, and she couldn’t even answer middle school questions.
(End of Chapter)
